Robotic Taxis Cost Twice As Much Per Mile As Taxis With Person Driving - MIT Study Shows
 |
SEE ALSO: GM Delays Launch Of Self-Driving Cruise - If You're Surprised Raise Your Hand
SEE ALSO: Autonomous Vehicle News Archive
SEE ALSO: Big Brother-Like "Birth to Grave" Autonomous Driving Will Take Our Freedom And Kill The Automobile Industry
SEE ALSO: Autonomous Autos Give Bad Guys The Power To End Our Freedom To Go Where We Want When We Want To
By Ashley Nunes and Kristen D Hernandez
MIT
May 10, 2019
MIT Study: Autonomous Vehicles and Public Health: High Cost or High Opportunity Cost?
What the authors of the study discovered is that the cost per mile of a "person" driven taxi is a low 72 cents, whereas the costs associated with autonomous/robotic taxis combined with the average utilization rate (around 50%) of today's taxi fleet means SiliCon Valley's disrupting taxis are likely to cost not the established 72 cents per mile but between $1.58 and $6.01 per mile along with the elimination of a traditional job, ruining peoples lives.
 |
MIT Study Summary
From Anton Wahlman
Auto Insight For Wall St.
• It's been an article of investor faith in Lyft, Uber and Tesla that driverless robotaxis will be less expensive than human-driven ones. Otherwise, what’s the point?
• Now comes a study from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) showing that driverless robotaxis could cost anywhere between twice and eight times per mile.
• Unlike other studies, MIT doesn’t just subtract the driver’s salary, but it also adds all the additional costs required for driverless robotaxi operation.
• It turns out that those costs are a lot higher, according to MIT. As a result, the net effect becomes that the robotaxi is much more expensive than the human driver.
• If this study is correct, then this will likely deflate the valuations of the companies most tied to robotaxi hopes: Lyft, Uber and Tesla.
